No WestConnex Camperdown ramps, but no answers either

The Inner West Council has welcomed the scrapping of the Westconnex Camperdown exit ramps, which is a glimmer of good news to inner west residents bearing the brunt of the WestConnex construction impacts.

However the Administrator Richard Pearson said that the Sydney Motorway Corporation (SMC) needed to come clean with the residents about where and how they were going to be impacted during construction of the M4-M5 link.

“Despite repeated requests from the Council, the Sydney Motorway Corporation is still providing few details on the location of construction sites and drilling points.

“There has been talk for months about a possible spoil extraction site on Darley Road in Leichhardt, but the Sydney Motorway Corporation refuses to give our residents any specifics,” said Mr Pearson.

“And now we have vague new plans for a construction site on the intersection of Parramatta and Pyrmont Bridge Roads.

“If SMC are going to force this project through, the residents who are going to bear the brunt of the impact deserve to know what is happening and where, when and how they will be hit.”

Given past experience with construction impacts, Mr Pearson said that the Sydney Motorway Corporation would have to prove to Council and local residents that it was genuine in alleviating local impacts.

“We have trucks breaking conditions of consent and using local streets and people kept awake at night due to construction noise.

“They need to act now, residents cannot put up with another five years of this.

“We also need to see a firm commitment to local improvements – improved walking and cycle ways, local traffic calming and a delivery of high quality landscaping, not the generic plans they are currently shopping around.